DTH viewers get right to pick channels of choice

Subscribers of direct-to-home (DTH) television services will be entitled to choose the bouquet of channels that they wish to see and the minimum monthly subscription that broadcasters charge cannot exceed rupees 150 per month, according to a new order issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

The new order comes a day after Trai submitted an affidavit before SC on its plans to cap the monthly cable charges

The Trai tariff order for 2010 has been notified and will come into effect from September 1. The order makes it mandatory for broadcasters to provide pay channels on a-la-carte basis to subscribers.

In simple terms this means offering a TV channel individually on a standalone basis.

Pay channels on DTH are not currently available on a-la-carte or individual basis.

DTH operators have been given a grace period till January 1 so that they have enough time to reconfigure their systems.

The order also states that Doordarshan channels should be a compulsory part of each bouquet. Trai, however, refrained from fixing the retail tariff for the pay channels. As the market forces appear to be operating effectively, the authority is of the view that there is no need for regulatory intervention in the matter of tariff fixation at present.

However, the order states that the fees that an operator has to pay to broadcasters for a channel should not be more than 35 per cent of that being paid by a normal cable operator.

The service providers have to publish their channel rates every three months.

The order also stipulates that subscription charges cannot be increased in the first six months of enrolling. The rates can, however, be decreased in those six months and the consumer can opt for any other service provided by the DTH operators.

The composition of the bouquet of channels should also be the same as those for the normal cable subscribers.

The order is applicable to other digital broadcasting systems, such as HITS, IPTV and digital addressable cable TV as well.

Trai has also stated that replacement of faulty equipment like set-top boxes and dish antennae and their repair should be done for consumers without any payment.

The proposals said the broadcaster has to report the rate of individual channel and bouquets of channels on its website.

It should also publish such rates on its website. Any change in prices shall be reported to the authority 30 days in advance and any new pay channel has to be notified 30 days in advance on the broadcaster's website as well as to the authorities.

Any broadcaster of a free-to air channel intending to convert the channel into a pay channel or vice versa shall, at least one month before the scheduled date of conversion, inform the authority about the intended conversion and give a public notice about the intended conversion, the order states.

The information about the intended conversion should also be published in at least two newspapers of which one should be a national newspaper and one in the same language as the channel.

The new order comes a day after Trai had submitted an affidavit before the Supreme Court on its plans to cap the monthly cable charges at rupees 250 across India, except for pockets where conditional access system (CAS) has been implemented.

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